Sadie, Sadie, Casted Lady

Every day brings new surprises and excitements, but some of them are more welcome than others. Surprise, the kids cleaned up their own rooms without being asked, that's awesome. Surprise, Bryan had an accident when those "diarrhea poops snuck out, they didn't even tell me they were coming..." well, that is not so awesome. And packing up two kids and rushing them to the emergency room in the pouring, cold rain definitely falls into the not so awesome category.

Last night Kendall came upstairs from the basement crying that her arm hurt. We have an office chair down there that rolls and spins and the kids are always getting in trouble for being crazy on it. Turns out that for whatever reason Kendall was standing up on that chair, fell down and somehow landed on/hurt her arm. I didn't feel too bad for her, after all they know not to play on it. She kept complaining so I checked to make sure she could bend her arm and her wrist and everything seemed to be alright. She was sent to lay down on the couch with a bag of frozen corn while I finished what I was working on. From where I was in the kitchen I could hear her squirming and crying and even though it was close to bedtime (that's when the theatrics usually start) I could tell that she was really in pain. And her elbow was already starting to swell up. So off to the hospital we go...

They took some x-rays at the emergency room, and while they didn't show any breaks or fractures there was a lot of obvious swelling to indicate something was wrong. Well, that and the fact that she would writhe with pain any time someone tried to touch it to see where it hurt. So the sweet girl had a splint put on. It was kind of a half cast to help hold the arm in place wrapped in an ace bandage.

We were at the hospital until almost 11:30 at night and I was worried she was going to have a terrible night, but she slept straight through with no problem. There are not a lot of doctors in the Omaha area that deal with Orthopedics in children. And by not a lot, I mean there is one. We were referred to a doctor at Boys Town Pediatrics. He is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, and with one look at the x-ray he was certain Kendall had an Occult Fracture of the Elbow. She now has a beautiful neon green cast (can you believe she chose that over pink, purple, AND blue?!) She will have to leave it on for four weeks, which isn't too bad except for the fact that we can not get any of her clothes on her. I think she will be wearing a lot of mine and Ethan's tee shirts until we can find some things that fit. She has been such a trooper about the whole thing and has amazed me and all of the doctors and nurses with her positive attitude. That girl is just a ray of sunshine, no doubt about it.

That's my Kendall. She has asked us to please call her "Pickle Arm" which of course we do, 'cause it's an awesome nickname. I'm sure we'll come up with tons more in the next four weeks. We are wondering how to make her Halloween Costume work and what she is going to wear to church on the day of the Primary Program, but I'm sure we will figure something out.

In other exciting news of the awesome kind, Bryan had one of the best days ever today. A couple of years ago his Grandma Swilor sent him a very cool shirt with a dragon on it. Bryan refused to call it a dragon, it was a DINOSAUR! And man, did he love that dinosaur shirt.
This was the only picture I could find of him in his "Dinosaur shirt." Gotta love the orange Julius mustaches. Poor Kendall, that was after I decided she should have "short bangs." Haha. And check out all those car shoes in the back! But there is his dragon/dinosaur, and he loved that shirt. He has had it for a few years now and the sleeves were starting to get a little short. He knew it was too small but was just having a hard time letting it go. A few Saturdays ago between the morning and afternoon sessions of General Conference we all went through our clothes and donated the clothes that didn't fit or we didn't like to wear anymore. Bryan happily put his dinosaur shirt into the bag when we talked about some little boy going to Goodwill to find some new clothes and finding a super cool dinosaur shirt that would fit him just right. We have shopped a few times since then, and each time we look for a bigger dinosaur shirt for Bryan, but with no luck. Today a big box came from Grandma and Grandpa Swilor, and although Kendall couldn't try on any of her new things due to her pickle arm, Bryan was eager to wear some new clothes. Guess what the very first shirt he pulled out was?! You guessed it, a cool dinosaur shirt. The best part is that Grandma Marcia didn't even know about all the heartache with the old dinosaur shirt, and somehow knew to send him another one! Grandmas are the best! I wish I had a picture of his face when he saw that shirt come out of the box. It was one of those moments when you can see their whole heart fill up with happiness - something as simple as a new shirt made this one of the best days of his three year old life. And he hasn't had any of those sneaky diarrhea poops all day. Could life get any better?!